During consideration of the Budget Resolution for fiscal 2022 (Senate Concurrent Resolution 14), Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) offered an amendment to prevent funding from being included in the budget for abortion or abortion-related discrimination. According to a press release from Lankford’s office, “The amendment ensures that the budget will comply with the long-standing Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal dollars to pay for abortion, and the Weldon amendment, which protects health care providers who refuse to participate in abortion from discrimination.”
The Senate adopted Lankford’s amendment on August 10, 2021 by a vote of 50 to 49 (Roll Call 336). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because there is no constitutional provision granting a right to abortion, Roe v. Wade notwithstanding; and pro-life taxpayers should not be forced to fund a lethal practice that violates their deeply held religious convictions.
